Today, the Wall Street Journal ran a front page article, Wal-Mart Radio Tags to Track Clothing, (paid subscription or sign-up account may be required) that no doubt was encouraged by Wal-Mart public relations. This article notes that this high-profile retailer is once again going to roll out an RFID tracking initiative, but this time, there is a well defined target, that being apparel, and more specifically, underwear and jeans. The article brought out the tensions between the pro-tracking community and the consumer privacy advocates. Interesting enough, the cable news and financial networks highlighted underwear tracking as their news byline, and that, too, provided plenty of fodder for viewer reactions.
The really interesting aspect to this story is the reactions that can be derived relative to the implications of RFID based tracking of inventory. That actually occurred in our household, where my wife was the first to read the Journal. She and I both had different viewpoints and perspectives to this announcement, as mirrored in the Journal article.
So, today we provide our Supply Chain Matters readers with two consecutive commentaries, one commentary from the perspective of supply chain strategy (penned by myself), and one commentary from the perspective of a knowledgeable consumer (most adequately represented by my spouse). We believe that providing different perspectives and reactions to the same announcement would be both interesting as well as insightful for our readers.
